The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest Chapter 12 Summary

How It All Goes Down

Sunday, May 15 - Monday, May 16

Armansky meets up with Torsten Edklinth, director of Säpo's Constitution Protection Unit (a.k.a. the Unit). The Unit makes sure people's constitutional rights aren't violated. They focus on anarchists, neo-Nazis, and anything that looks like it might be a crime of racial or ethnic hatred.

(For a fascinating overview of the Swedish system of democracy, you should read this chapter.)

Armansky tells Edklinth Salander's story and explains that there is a group within Säpo committing lots of crimes.

After long consideration, Edklinth concludes that, "If Armansky's account is true, Lisbeth Salander had at very least been deprived of the opportunity to exercise her constitutionally protected rights and liberties" (12.30).

Edklinth calls in Inspector Monica Figuerola, a tall, beautiful, fitness nut and member of the Unit.

He assigns her to try to verify elements of Armansky's story.

Almost immediately, she verifies that Teleborian "indeed had dealings with [Säpo]" (12.73).

She also confirms that Göran Mårtensson, the gray Volvo guy following Blomkvist, works for Säpo, but isn't on assignment from any department she can find.

Meanwhile, Berger is in the glass cage at SMP trying to recover from battling the SMP board to have her ideas taken seriously. They treat her like "a teenager" (12.107).

After lunch, Berger gets an email calling her a "whore" (12.114) and threatening to rape her with a screwdriver. The email address is from SMP, but the IT manager says the address is fake.

Meanwhile, Figuerola ponders how best to investigate Evert Gullberg, the 78-year-old tax lawyer who shot Zalachenko.

She considers making a booty-call on her friend Daniel Mogren, but decides on a book in bed instead. She wonders if she should settle down and start a family.